Injection pens of Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy
Wegovy and other weight-loss drugs are likely to supercharge a consumer rush towards strength training equipment and many gyms are ill-prepared © Victoria Klesty/Reuters
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Hold tight to your free weights — the Ozempic revolution is coming to a gym near you.
The runaway success of “GLP-1” weight loss and diabetes drugs, which also include Wegovy and Zepbound, is hard to overstate. Sales are expected to approach $50bn this year, making them the top-selling class of drugs worldwide. That is despite global shortages, high prices and the fact that the drugs are largely available only in injectable form so far. Sales are expected to more than double to $130bn by 2030 and could soar higher if the makers win permission to sell them as a preventive tool.
For pharma groups Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, soon to be joined by others, this is fabulous news. For others, it is likely to be really bad. Diet company WeightWatchers recently changed chief executives as it struggles to adjust, and soft drink, beer and snack company shares have been on a wild ride as investors try to figure out who will be hurt the most when consumers taking the drugs eat healthier food and fewer calories overall.
For gyms and health clubs, the impact is going to be huge but complicated for an industry that is still rebuilding after Covid. The pandemic put a quarter of US fitness centres out of business and reshaped commuting and exercise patterns. Weight-loss drugs are likely to supercharge a consumer rush towards strength training equipment that has been gaining force for more than a decade, and many gyms are still ill-prepared.
Ten years ago, most health club floors were seas of treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bikes, with fixed weight machines along the edges along with a free weight area geared towards power lifting, mostly by men. But the pandemic and concurrent rise of apps and YouTube videos that gave people access to personalised fitness routines has made that configuration all but obsolete.
Customers still use treadmills but both sexes now seek out a wider range of strength training equipment, including barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls and the like. Clubs, seeking to boost membership, have also leaned into the social aspects of in-person fitness, from group classes and personal trainers to cafés and hang-out areas.
Gyms are pushing their stair climbers and fixed weight machines to the periphery and replacing them with open space for body-sculpting classes, free weights and individual training sessions.
“We’re seeing a greater demand for space for strength,” Colleen Keating, CEO of Planet Fitness, one of the largest listed gym groups, told analysts in August. Even Peloton, famous for its cardio-intensive bikes, is testing an app focused on strength training.
The shift takes time and money. The now less-popular cardio machines are often sold on multiyear leases, while strength training equipment generally requires an upfront investment. The delay is leading to uneven usage and customer complaints at clubs that have not made the shift.
Weight-loss drugs will exacerbate the pressure. As the drugs gain acceptance, fewer people are likely to rely on exercise as their primary weight loss tool and the drugs’ side effects, nausea and intestinal distress, can make high-impact cardio activities uncomfortable.
However, GLP-1 users still need the gym. Studies suggest that the drugs cause significant muscle loss along with fat, leading to problems with balance and mobility as well as saggy skin sometimes dubbed “Ozempic butt”.
Strength training seems to be the answer not just for GLP-1 users but everyone else. A growing body of medical literature suggests strength training cuts mortality, particularly for women, while also helping to prevent osteoporosis and relieving the symptoms of depression.
“It’s gone from being health and fitness to health and wellness, which is a lot more holistic” says Eleanor Scott, a partner on PwC’s leisure strategy team.
Foot traffic to popular US gym chains Crunch Fitness and EoS Fitness is up by double-digits year on year, according to data provider Plaicer.ai. Planet Fitness has added 2.7mn members since the start of 2023 and improved its profit margins.
For all of them, the combination of strength training with prevention creates a chance to win, or win back, older customers still wary of gyms post-Covid. Although 80 per cent of baby boomers participate in fitness activities, just 42 per cent belong to a gym, compared to nearly three-quarters of active Gen Zers and millennials, according to ABC Fitness. But growth will not follow if newcomers end up fighting the regulars for access to the dumbbells.
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(Edited)

I think it is a good body hacking combination.

Weight lifting will change one's chemistry on a daily basis.

It's not a bad idea to combine weight lifting with glp-1 drugs.

Just try it out. But, try to maintain a regular physical routine.
(Edited)
We’re generally happy to add high levels of tax on unhealthy products like tobacco and booze. Why not super-tax unhealthy food?
No offense, but if you lost weight because you were too lazy to actually get to a gym, why would that have any impact on gyms?
Exercise never helped with weight loss to begin with. "Diet and exercise" is how you maintain good health and prevent obesity, *not* how you achieve a low bodyfat percentage. There are plenty of very strong fat people. There are plenty of mildly obese people who can run marathons.
(Edited)
This is not true. Whilst diet does ultimately drive bodyfat, exercise can absolutely help.

Anyone who wants to achieve a healthy, low bodyfat (e.g. for men 8 - 15%) would be very well served doing a decent amount of hypertrophy focussed training (broadly what has been described here as "strength" training).

This is both to (i) build muscle mass while in a calorie surplus/maintenance, which helps increase BMR and makes subsequent dieting much easier, and (ii) retain muscle mass while dieting.

There is also evidence that exercising regularly actually helps to suppress appetite (working theory is that it basically attunes your body better to your actual energy expenditure).

I'd also suggest that exercise related goals can often provide the motivation to lose weight and to keep going with the dieting/fitness lifestyle changes. I have no doubt that there are obese people who have run a marathon, but I would be very surprised if anyone who is obese has run a 3 hour marathon or could do 20 strict pullups (for example). At a certain point if you continue to pursue a fitness endeavour towards excellence, you are forced to adapt other lifestyle aspects like nutrition, recovery etc. which are powerful in terms of weight loss. And if you can run a marathon quickly or whatever other similar athletic feat you might want to turn your hand to, and you are technically obese, then I suspect your obesity probably isn't doing you a huge amount of harm because clearly you're still fit overall - although that latter point is pure speculation on my part.
I don’t care what anyone says. This fad will end badly.
(Edited)
Speaking for everyone, we don't care what *you* say either.
That is really clever, disturbed too, but don’t let that bother you.
Strange how the FT and the Economist (earlier part of the same group) tend to publish articles about the same subject in the same week with uncanny resemblance... this is the case with news of course, but still, seems a bit too close for comfort for subjects that aren't always really mainstream news.
(Edited)
I am not sure I understand this obsession with this drug either. I am not against it, but it's (just) a drug, and the coverage is a bit much. No one around me - middle class white collar - is using it.
That you know of.

A friend of mine, middle class and white collar, recently told me he had started on it. The only other person he has told is his partner. Lots of people keep this kind of thing close to their chest so you wouldn’t really know who is and isn’t taking it.
Strong not skinny.
Strength training seems important with these GLP-1 drugs, though it doesn’t take the place of sport and other activities that use various muscle groups together while improving balance and agility. The gym should be there to build up capacity for sport and activity rather than being the activity itself, though that doesn’t seem to be the way the world is going.
I'm a fifty-something woman with diabetes. There is a very black and white view of diabetes that keeps recurring in the media i.e. people with diabetes are fat and lazy and eat terribly. The truth is, there is a huge genetic component to diabetes, there are lots of different reasons why someone is diabetic, and it's not a binary condition i.e. type 1 vs type 2, more of a spectrum. On my diagnosis I was referred to an endocrinologist who sent me for more tests as apparently I didn't "look like a typical type 2". I then went on to discover that a lot of the protocols for learning how to manage my condition are predicated on this same binary view.

I was sent to a diabetes education clinic. There I was seen by a nurse practitioner who was clearly working from a script that assumed that the person in front of them needed to lose a lot of weight and start an exercise program. When I pointed out that a) I had been active all my life, including strength training and b) did not need to lose weight and in fact needed calories to support my activity levels, they were not able to advise me and I was referred to a nutritionist. My trainer also referred me to the Diabetes Strong website (sorry can't seem to get it as a link) which I found really helpful.

The bottom line is - most people with diabetes will experience intestinal distress from what they have to take (even pills like metformin which occasionally gives me cramps and diarrhea), It says a lot about how motivated/desperate people are to lose weight that they are willing to take this on. I'm not yet convinced that taking medications developed for people with diabetes by people with healthy blood sugar levels is safe long term and I wouldn't do it without continuous glucose monitoring, especially if accompanied by a vigorous strength and cardio regimen.
Maybe we will see the end of ‘fat but fit’ body positivy mythology as well!
what we're seeing is the beginning of a 'yet to be named' new drugs epidemic.
(Edited)
It is also possible to lose weight without these drugs. A close friend was told by his doctor that he was obese and a heart attack waiting to happen. He joined a gym, cut out alcohol, started eating healthily (no more steak and chips, red wine followed by cheese and cakes on Saturday - instead vegetables, lentils, water and fruit). Within six months down to a normal weight and looking ten years younger. I appreciate not for everyone.
You described the root of the problem there: being fit requires work. It takes time, it is hard and requires discipline. These drugs promise an effortless alternative and humans are hardwired to take the easier of two paths available. Unfortunately, everything is a tradeoff and these drugs do come with their side effects as described in the article.
(Edited)
Yes, and being fit brings enormous benefits in terms of energy, health, confidence, muscle strength, and the ability to do simple tasks, particularly as you grow older, as I learnt last week when I lifted a heavy suitcase onto an overhead rack on a train and was grateful for all the weight lifting cases. You need muscles and not just weight loss, also healthy eating with sufficient protein.
For those actually obese, the side effects are better than the health consequences of obesity. For some people who seem to be getting private subscriptions who are just a bit fat, arguably the costs don’t outweigh the benefits.
They can double the number of people in the gym now all the fat has gone.
You will struggle to lose weight on the cardio machines in the gym. If you do 20 minutes a day 5 days a week it's only about 1000 calories. Also the drugs won't improve your cardiovascular fitness so stopping the cardio is probably a mistake.
It's great to lose weight in any way. But people still need to workout and the food industry still needs to be held accountable for the obesity epidemic.
(Edited)
Yes, but it is the politicians, too many of whom may be unfortunately clinically obese themselves, who must be held accountable for not holding the processed food industry accountable — seemingly due to the industry’s obesely-large political campaign donations, perhaps mostly to those same coincidentally obese politicians who consume their donors’ promoted products.
You are right, ultra processed food is like the new smoking. I wonder how much influence the large corporations that produce all this ready made UPF have. Maybe also more education in schools about nutrition and how to prepare an easy meal from scratch, eg porridge instead of cereal, scrambled eggs instead of a bacon sandwich….
Even easier than porridge is a bowl of overnight oats. Put the oats in water the night before and the next morning they will be ready to eat, with dried fruit, sultanas and yoghurt on top. Much healthier than supermarket "cereals" that contain a lot of sugar and not much fibre.
Indeed :)
Going to the gym is not primarily about losing weight but about building up your strength and improving your mood. Ninety-five per cent of weight loss is eating and drinking less. The gym accounts for about five per cent in my experience.
You need to do cardio, strength and flexibility exercise.

I’m not sure where ‘phone scrolling fits in to this, but I do see a lot of it at my gym. I’d say the ratio of strength training to scrolling is about 1:10.

Bit like in the office, it’s not just that you’re at the gym, it’s what you do at the gym.
Yep, am literally the only person in my gym who ever breaks a sweat.

Everyone else is like one rep and back to the phone or 3 minutes on the treadmill and jump off before the sweat starts flowing.

A lot of people are fooling themselves that they exercise.
the ratio does make sense. People need breaks when lifting heavy
If you want to lose weight more effectively, it’s weights and resistance training that you need; not (never) cardio. Cardio results in negligible to minimal weight loss, so those cardio machines were never the right ones to begin with
If you want to lose weight you need to eat less - everything else is wishful thinking.

Cardio definitely has a place in any exercise regime because getting your heart rate up and keeping it up for a sustained period is a good idea.
I have been bodybuilding for 27 years and I can tell you that resistance training and diet alone are not going to get you lean. If you cut your calories to a deficit, you will lose fat and muscle, as well as strength. Increasing calories to have strength and build muscle will also put on some fat. You need cardio to balance it off.

These days, at age of 45, I do more hours of cardio than resistance training in a week and that allows me to maintain a BMI of 31 with body fat sub-2% year-round.
BF < 2%? Really?
(Edited)
2% is not only insanely unhealthy, its also not seen outside of bodybuilding competitions. Not bodybuilding in general, mind you, but specifically during a cut going into a competition. Not meant to be sustained, but as a peak. Strangely, the rest of the comment makes sense and tracks, so I'm going to assume the 2% is a typo, or going off a bad calculator (most at home BF calculators are terrible.)
I fear for your health if your body fat is less than two per cent
Good opener Brooke but please do some follow ups. Get some strength and conditioning pros on. What I believe after years at the gym.
If it doesn't challenge you - It doesn't change you
Too many people of all ages go to the gym and simply will not challenge themselves due to fear or a loathing of the feeling it gives you.
Cardio vs strength is a crazy concept
I can give you a strength routine that you will not get past the first 10 minutes off due to a lack of cardio-vascular capacity. I rarely see people out of breath or sweating heavily in the gym.
How you look is a state of mind not body
Mental fortitude and perserverance are much more important the the a,b,c of the fitness industry. It is one area of life where commitment brings results. Gyms would be better to offer classes in the mindset of the gym lovers. I think a lot of people do not even know how it feels to be well conditioned, flexible and fit. They get stuck on the hateful early stages that no-one loves.
Form and range
Everyone loves to talk about both and they are massively important. But strength over full range is super rare. Remember your range is probably not full range.

I'd love to see more articles on the pyschology of why people take GPL-1, why they go to gyms and do not change shape, why they quit, what we need to do to change this and how our youth influences it. Who knows it might tempt more people into the gym.
That’ll be something new.. lean and slim with high blood pressure, heart conditions and 20% skeletal muscle mass…
There is a limited demographic for which weight loss and health improvements are one and the same. GLP-1 aids in weight loss by suppressing appetite and this is suitable for people for whom weight is a long term structural negative health problem. For these people the muscle loss and potential nutrient deficiencies (if you eat less but still eat badly) are less critical than the health strain from being overweight. For a significantly larger portion of individuals, the long run health negatives of muscle loss could be more serious than the extra weight they are carrying. Strength training in a calorie deficit is more critical than when you are in a surplus as your propensity to lose muscle is higher. Indeed, if you take GLP-1 and experience muscle loss, then your basal metabolic rate will actually be lower meaning you will be able to afford fewer calories. Should you return to your old pre GLP-1 diet you would put more weight on than you previously sustained and have a worse body composition (muscle vs fat) leading to either worse health outcomes or another round of GLP-1. Strength training for anyone experiencing rapid weight loss should be a top priority. Some smart cookie will probably start marketing 'Ozempic classes' soon.
‘Likely’ doing a lot of ahem heavy lifting here. Central assumption is that people go to the gym to lose or maintain their weight. Mental health and social aspects just as important from my anecdata.
Social aspects = hook ups?

I’m married and too old to be part of the gym love scene but I get the impression that other people are there for those purposes…
We will see millions of people who are perhaps 10-20kg overweight using this drug rather than doing it the normal way, which has no adverse effects.

I'm not saying the drug is harmful per se, but appetite suppression and muscle atrophy are not ideal for the body.

Eat a range of whole foods and make sure the protein intake is fairly high. Have a good step count. Do some form of progressive overload strength training alongside any form of cardio you enjoy.
Might have less to do with Wegovy and more with the discovery that doing just strength training reduces all cause mortality just as much as cardio sessions and that high intensity cardio is better than long moderate intensity sessions, and ideally you do both but not too much of either. You can even draw an efficiency frontier on the graph.
outside group fitness, I’m not sure it’s high impact cardio that people usually do at the gym, nor is that necessarily effective for long term weight loss.
There’s also a difference between weight loss and fat loss.
People taking ozempic will also be in for a rude awakening when they discover just how difficult it is to gain muscle mass, and how much work is involved.
There are no shortcuts
Here begins the end of civilisation as we know it
Shift to strength training is great but I would be well nervous about the long term effects of the drugs. These companies are toast, given thr scale of usage, if it turns out these have debilitating long term side effects.
(Edited)
These companies are toast, given thr scale of usage, if it turns out these have debilitating long term side effects.
That’s not an unreasonable assumption, but it’s not necessarily correct. In fact, I suspect it’s rather more likely to be incorrect.
Ask the Sacklers.
Quite comfortably up there with one of the most meaningless bits of journalism I've ever come across
(Edited)
This is pretty speculafive. Cardio machines were never a great tool for losing weight. Sustained weight loss almost always involves reducing calorie intake. Cardio is good mainly for cardiovascular health.

It's quite possible than 90% of people who get gym memberships just to use ellipticals believe cardio is their best weight loss strategy even if it isn't. But many of these people are desperate to lose weight--I mean, these machines usually tell them they're spending forty minutes to undo the cake they ate at a children's birthday party. Why not think that this group of exercisers won't *both* us GLP-1s if available *and* cardio?

I mean, imagine if someone wrote that access to steroids or TRT were going to lead to a crash in the market for strength equipment. Changing your hormones will build a lot of muscle mass even if you don't work out if you're untrained. But nearly everyone who does this (at least with the primary purpose of changing body composition) *also* does strength training.
You can buy all the weights that you are likely to want for much less than a year's gym subscription and you don't even need to travel to the gym to use them. If the switch from fancy machines to weights is real this is actually a massive threat to the business model which will have to rely on classes and personal coaching as it's main attractions rather than access to equipment.
Not sure most floors will stand up to heavy barbell drop and actually barbells and weights are surprisingly expensive (especially plus lifting area, rack and bench plus buddy to spot you).
If you are into power lifting that's true but I suspect that most people using gyms are using weights for circuit training which you can quite safely do on your own.
Wondering if all those empty office floors can be converted into gyms... Oh, wait, operators want street level premises so they can have big glass panes letting walkers-by see the equipment so they feel guilt then come in to sign up, then don't come because they hate being on display once they're on the very machines that made them sign-up... As long as gyms make money from people that never show up, they will not design them for users. The problem is in the industry as much as with people's understable disinterest in discomfort and change - which by the way is why GLP1s and their potential side-effects have a significant abandonment rate even from diabetics)-.
(Edited)
I don’t actually get the premise of this article beyond another easy way to get views writing about Ozempic.

Strength training has been popular for many years now, and is also a more effective way to lose fat than cardio training (which is still important for overall health). GLP-1s reduce your appetite so you consume fewer calories - but strength training requires you to eat. The idea that you can take these injections and then bench 100kg sounds laughable, you won’t have the strength and energy to! GLP-1s will make you skinny and weak (and miserable).
Increasing popularity of weight training (particularly for women) is a multiyear trend that predates growth in obesity drugs. Hopefully that will cause long-term decline in osteoporosis rates
(Edited)
Indeed, as I have learnt weight training is essential for bone density and preventing muscle loss as you get older. Good to add in a bit of running for cardio and stress reduction , and maybe some stretching exercises for flexibility.
The proposition of this article is not only ridiculous. It is unacceptable and dangerous. A BigPharma fad which will likely be revealed as harmful before long cannot and should not be considered as a viable alternative to physical activity.
Excercise in a gym has never been an effective route to weight loss.
There may be a shift from endurance/cardio to strength training, but I don't see that as anything resulting from weight-loss drugs. It's partly because running outside is popular, and far cheaper and more fun than in a gym. And the other side, as noted, is the new evidence on the benefits of strength training.
Oh yeh don’t need exercise as you lost all muscle and weight. Makes sense in the modern world that people only exercise for weight not overall health. No wonder society has so many sick notes. People can’t chew be bothered to exercise even after being told of the benefits.
(Edited)
Exercise is vital, strength training being the best kind, but you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet. These drugs are a mask for the underlying issue of extremely poor diets, with minimal nutritional value, based on ultra processed food.
Without a change in diet to minimally processed vegetables and fruits, added to a quality protein source, underlying health issues will not only persist but be compounded by these drugs.
Yes, there never seems to be much comment on what you eat as opposed to how much you eat. Sticking to UPF but less of it is still not healthy despite weight loss; however perhaps you get dietary guidance/support when taking it?
These drugs sound awful.

To think we laugh at how the Elizabethans used arsenic as a cosmetic.
People seriously underestimate the risks associated with obesity; the evidence is very clear, taking these drugs is a lot safer than not taking them for the obese and those with T2D.
Indeed, and for many people who have struggled with obesity for decades and suffered the stigma associated with it, these drugs can be life changing in a beneficial way.
I had to read this bit twice.

Weight-loss drugs will exacerbate the pressure. As the drugs gain acceptance, fewer people are likely to rely on exercise as their primary weight loss tool and the drugs’ side effects, nausea and intestinal distress, can make high-impact cardio activities uncomfortable.
The last sentence is too long and should be broken down into two:
As the drugs gain acceptance, fewer people are likely to rely on exercise as their primary weight loss tool. In addition, the drugs' side-effects, nausea and intestinal distress, can make high-impact cardio activities uncomfortable.
"Studies suggest that the drugs cause significant muscle loss along with fat, leading to problems with balance and mobility as well as saggy skin sometimes dubbed “Ozempic butt”.

Surely this can't end well.
It would be an interesting study to plot the number of exercise and fitness machines that you see dumped at the recycling centres vs weight loss drug sales. (some in their original packaging)
We now have a pack of Ozempic perpetually cooling in the work fridge, haven’t seen anyone lose weight of course. But why do something enjoyable like a run when you can mess with your endocrine system and take a drug that makes you feel sick, causes muscle wastage, and gives you “intestinal distress”? And now already overcrowded gyms will benefit from the intestinally distressed queuing for 2kg dumbbells, wonderful.
Your can't out train a bad diet
If Americans and Brits ceased being so grotesquely overweight, how would that change the health economics? Surely the American health industry would collapse - and the NHS relieved of a huge number of fat, tattooed and expensive crisp eaters?
Ozempic might ultimately be bad!
Possibly the worst article I have ever read in this publication. Has the author ever been to a gym? Apparently it hasn’t occurred to her that there are other benefits to endurance training than weight loss. Well, it has to others and they are not likely to switch to expensive prescription drugs anytime soon.

Clearly written by someone who hates all sorts of exercise.
The roider boys with biggerexia won't change, it is true, but they are not the main market for the High Street gym chains. The companies need to get the over 40's back as customers, and that means offering what they want to buy - 'wellness' and not strutting your stuff in lycra. More dancercise, less treadmills.
The last thing these companies want is thin people.

What a racket.
If you want/need a better weight balance, eat less, eat better, or if you prefer, eat adequately for your needs and move more
Easy to say but my eyes tell me is harder to do
It requires effort, commitment, etc. as always when trying to achieve a better outcome.
(Edited)
No! Eat MORE But eat WELL!

E.g. an 800g lunchbox of lentils and tofu mixed with veg is much heavier than a traditional sandwich and crisps - and might even have more "calories". But the former makes you feel full and will have less impact on weight.

Similarly the biggest culprit in obesity is morning cereal - and the milk that goes into it. A good meaty fry up is actually greater in volume but won't give you crazy sugar spikes which ultimately make you fat.
I doubt that an imbalance of calorie amount will help with the weight.
800g lunchbox of lentils and tofu sounds like hell on earth.
And don't order food from UberEats or Deliveroo but just walk to the shops to buy the fresh ingredients you need for good home cooking.
(Edited)
Featured
The next step is presumably prescribing anabolic steroids to combat the muscle wasting from GLP-1s. Then half your customers (the male half) will need aromatase inhibitors to keep them from growing man-boobs as the roids get converted to estrogen. And then PCT drugs at the end of every cycle to try to get the HPT axis up and running again.

It's an endless boom of taking drugs to fix a problem, then more drugs to fix the side effects!
Lol, I like your post
(Edited)
Yep, that’s the American health system in a nutshell.

Doctors are dangerous in the US. Way too kin to prescribe an easy fix.
(Edited)
That's already a huge trend, so many people are on TRT and it seems like in the US you can get it without much hassle. Very popular amongst the young gym rats.

Considering the long-term effects it's a health crisis in its own right.
Yeah this already is a thing, Hormone replacement is well established.
TRT = Testosterone Replacement Therapy (had to look that one up). Surely if you start taking over-the-counter testosterone then your own in-house production is going to shut down?

Yes, but supplementation with liutenizing hormone can offset this.
Please provide more detailed investment advice, precisely which pharmaceutical companies to invest in.
have a protein shake everyday, eat plenty of eggs and meat and keep working out albeit lower weight, higher reps.
Cardio? Don't need that I'm on Ozempic.
Heart health? What's that?
I’m sure there will be a drug soon to give you the cardio. Oh, maybe that’s viagra.
Helping out the real most important muscle
No Viagra's not for the heart. It sounds like you studied anatomy but failed the final exams.
Yes. Even at non peak times I am now quite regularly asked how many sets I have left to do. For some reason especially on the bench press - never used to happen. Also so many more women ( like me ) are in the weights area. Some of them squat scary amounts.
I’ve noticed the same, and gyms aren’t expanding to or doing anything to lower congestion and create a better experience.
No congestion at 5:15 in the morning. But it’s packed from 10 AM to 5. WFH makes it possible to prioritize working out.
From the sound of the drug's side effects, squatting might not end well.
it's a drug. and it doesn't build muscle, strength, health, wellness. if I understand correctly, it suppresses appetite for food, regardless of whether it is health or ultra processed, delicious or not so much.
yeah, it makes sense to me that if ozempic etc curb hunger then it will reduce demand for unhealthy food (let's be honest, a large part of the diet of its clientele). But I don't see why it would increase demand for healthy food.
This drug puts the body into starvation mode. That's the only parallel situation when the body loses fat AND muscle at the same time.
It's not healthy.
Intermittent fasting on the other hand, is very healthy. Perhaps an intermittent Ozempic regime would be good.
For those whose BMI is over 30, the evidence from large randomised trials is that those taking the drugs are healthier than those not.
Anyone who takes ozempic and stops going to the gym coukd be sending themselves to an early grave!

Once we hit our mid 40s we lose 2% of muscle mass per year. Doing weights slows the rate of decays, while low protein dieta speeds it up.

The big danger with ozempic is that the sudden dietary crunch will not have enough protein to feed muscles, leading to early frailty in their 60s/70s.

But thus is great news for the rest of us! Less people too sick to work due to diabetes, and at the same time the same people quickly remove themselves from the pension benefits system post retirement 😀
You’re a bit of a misanthrope
Le Misanthrope, in person.
Featured
People need to take responsibility for their health but I guess taking drugs is easier until the side effects hit. …
(Edited)
People seriously underestimate the risks associated with obesity; the evidence is very clear, taking these drugs is a lot safer than not taking them for the obese and those with T2D.
"Taking responsibility" would be great, but meanwhile in the World we live in that's perhaps not working so well.
Here’s the thing: you need adequate amounts of all four. Aerobic sessions, strength sessions, nutrition and sleep. All athletes live by these four fundamentals. Ordinary people are no different, they just don’t need to stress about optimisation (which is good news, because that is the hard part).
Thank you.
Interesting article teasing out the potential implications of the increasing use of weight loss drugs.
What are the implications on other areas of social and economic life?
More please.
Superb article.
Strength training is a requirement with age anyway, as the muscles weaken after 50 if they are not stressed. It is very interesting to see weight-loss drugs leading to a reduction in cardio requirements.
This could impact on cardio-pulmonary 'fitness' down the line.
It seems like it's only a reduction in cardio requirements if you think cardio is only for losing weight or looking thinner, rather than maintaining good heart health.
Perhaps an article on the relationship between eating disorders and there drugs might be more interesting though it might just take a little more work....which one supposes is the reason for the absence, or maybe it is just that articles about fatness and fitness however flaky seem to be widely read.
Incredibly complicated and not fully understood hormone injections are moving people ‘towards health & wellness’. When did artificial hormones become wellness?
Although 80 per cent of baby boomers participate in fitness activities, just 42 per cent belong to a gym, compared to nearly three-quarters of active Gen Zers and millennials, according to ABC Fitness.
I find these numbers astonishing. 75% of Gen Zers & millennials are gym members? Really? I know ABC Fitness is probably referring to just the US, but even so …
Is ‘active’ the key qualifier? Maybe lots of inactive people?
Of course. Somewhere between 80 and 90% of gym members only ever visit the gym a handful of times per year.
I think it means that of Gen Z/Millennials that exercise, 75% of them hold a gym membership.
Nevertheless, confusing
One can only hope they all remain oblivious to the benefits of swimming.
In the same vein, hopefully your comment remains near the bottom of the list. Can’t let people find out about swimming pools, there’s not enough of them…
agreed hands down.
Sounds like a fun way to spend your free time… omg. Just go outside cycling, running, rowing, etc get some fresh air, a coffee afterwards and you are good to go instead of these shortcuts.
I used to do just that. I was wrong. Turns out strength training is important too
Plus, at least in my opinion, lifting weights is fun
(Edited)
...yes strength training is important for prehab and rehab, when performing proper functional activities like running, cycling, swimming and team sports at performance levels above a slug.....as opposed to just popping pills and pumping weights to make your body look buff for the next Gram/Tinder photo op..
Recent meta-analyses reveal a U-shaped relationship between Resistance Exercise volumes and mortality, with optimal benefits achieved at about 60 min of RE per week.

J Sport Health Sci. 2023 May; 12(3): 284–286.
Published online 2022 Nov 7. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2022.11.
How much resistance exercise is beneficial for healthy aging and longevity?
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Strength training not a short cut. I am a 58 y old woman and I wish I had found out earlier about its benefits. The change in a year of lifting heavy weights for me has been big - and vv hard work. I am hoping it makes a care home less likely.
Respect!
It's never too late. I'm doing strength and mobility with my 80 yr old mother in law every day and the transformation in her is startling.
I'm 57 and have a rowing machine that comes into the dining room every winter. Also a dog to walk, and stairs. I also have the Insanity CD and do a workout three times a week.
horses for courses
Personally I go to the gym to use the treadmill/stationary bike because I don't feel safe doing those activities outside, particularly when it's dark.
Is the FT a UK paper? Not a single mention of what the impact is in the UK. Further how about some interviews with some Ozempic users or is the Journalist too lazy to do any research other than recap Planet Fitness’s latest earnings call?
(Edited)
Journalists usually call up “real people” when they can’t be bothered to do the hard work of thinking and producing something original. I have absolutely no desire to hear the man on the street’s boring opinion. That’s not “research”.
And yet here you are ;)
The thing is, once tried strength training is pretty addictive. You get a physical and mental high from it that's more difficult to achieve with a cardio workout. It makes you look better. The science generally says it's better for you. And you get exhausted and effectively get a cardio workout anyhow with good strength training.

I'm not sure that GLP-1 is needed as an explanation why strength training is gaining in popularity.
You get a physical and mental high from it that's more difficult to achieve with a cardio workout.
Wrong. A proper run or bike ride givea you an actual endorphin high.
It depends how one uses weights, if done as something akin to circuit training it's very much a cardio workout too.
Kettlebells on a bike is the only way to get really really high.
Ride with no hands and ring them bells 🧠
Strength training too for what it’s worth. Depends how much you do and at what intensity.
I don't know why cycling is classified as "cardio" and not "weight training". If you weigh 80 kg and ride to the top of a hill 500 metres above sea level, you are lifting a LOT of weight on the way up.
I find the high from a run is unmatched. As if I’ve been washed from the inside.
Washed out from the inside appears to be one of the side effects of these drugs.
Especially on a cold day
The aches to my knees/hips from a run is also unmatched... unfortunately not a useful exercise to me.
I love strength training and not a big fun of running (but I do it anyway).

I get a substantially bigger high from running even though I give 100% to strength training and train hard for hypertrophy.
“… investors try to figure out who will be hurt the most when consumers taking the drugs eat healthier food and fewer calories overall”. Surely the point is that with GLP-1 drugs, consumers won’t need to avoid junk food let alone go near a gym?
Precisely what I thought. If you have a drug that magically disappears fat, why stop eating crisps?
It doesn’t magically disappear fat, it magically stops you wanting to eat crisps.
Oh, that doesn't sound like much fun! Thanks for pointing this out.
Happy to help. Also fascinating to hear there are people who think eating crisps is fun.
Because these drugs reduce cravings also
I believe it suppresses appetite and cravings (for junk food). So rather than a burger and chips you would rather have a salad.
Isn’t it that it suppresses appetite for ALL food - the junk food just feels more noticeable because that’s the type of food people have been used to getting most craving for.
Prediction - we are 20 years away from giant class action lawsuits by people who used GLP-1 drugs for lifestyle reasons and suffer health issues "caused" by the drugs in later life.
And they’ll argue using precedents from the cases against the food companies who sold ultra processed junk as food for decades.
Another prediction; the reduction in mortality and morbidity demonstrated for those with obesity and/or type 2 diabetes from taking GLP-1 drugs will also be found for those with other conditions, and even those without apparent significant health problems.
totally speculative and hyperbolic...
I prefer lisdexamphetamine 😂
I am literally writing this comment as I pedal away on my cardio bike at the gym. I alternate my days between cardio and strength. This is the thing: I love strength training. Muscle maintenance — ideally hypertrophy — is essential. But cardio is also invaluable for general health and it’s also invaluable to ensure the most engaged strength training exercise sessions possible. You need both strength and cardio readily available at the gym. I’m sure these drugs have incredible benefits but reading about the impact they have on muscle mass raises a huge, red flag. Thoroughly enjoyed this article. More please…
Flexibility is important too. Ideally people would combine cardio with functional strength training.
What you need is to take your strength exercises to their full range of motion (for example deep, ass-to-the-grass, squats).

That will give you all the flexibility you need.
Mobility is the best concept I've came across. Defined as the ability to apply force through the full desired range of motion.
Stretching is vital to prevent injury, especially as one ages.
On your ‘cardio’ bike typing… rest day?? Should be pushing a little harder…
Ha, I knew someone would reply that! Love your comment. You’re assuming I’m typing and not one of these tech-savvy folks who simply talks into their iPhone. I’m not big on typing, so that’s a clue. Have a great day.
You can talk whilst doing cardio!
Do you train much? Most people should absolutely be able to type when doing steady state cardio. Many endurance athletes have used 'you should be able to talk' as a sign that you're doing UT2 training properly (though obviously monitoring heart rate is much better).
Indeed. Or maybe monitoring power output. We should all aspire to Pog's Z2 ... 340w for five hours according to a recent podcast he did!
I really hope this is sarcasm, as hitting maximum effort every session is a very poor way to train and will severely limit fitness. Long duration lower intensity workouts, warming up, cooling down, active recovery and rest days are all important parts of any serious cardio training program.
I go to the gym to train for my main sport, alternating cardio and functional training. I feel like I have discovered a cheat code with resistance-oriented cardio training. It now takes far more exertion for me to get tired, and reaching my maximum heart rate is becoming a challenge. Quitting cardio because you've already lost weight with Ozempic means missing out on incredible benefits for your body.
Any gym based cardio is just so eye-wateringly boring though.
3 things are needed in any physical fitness regimen: strength, stretch and cardio (and then diet, sleep and nutrition)
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Don’t confuse exercise and diet.If you want to get slim eat less, if you want to get fit and strong use a gym.
"Abs are made in the kitchen"
Treadmills and similar cardio equipment are still in great need to maintain an appropriate cardiovascular and respiratory reserve at all stages of life.
Fully agree on the benefits of strength training.
Recent meta-analyses reveal a U-shaped relationship between RE volumes and mortality, with optimal benefits achieved at about 60 min of RE per week.
RE = Resistance Exercise

J Sport Health Sci. 2023 May; 12(3): 284–286. Published online 2022 Nov 7. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2022.11.004
How much resistance exercise is beneficial for healthy aging and longevity?
Please, I beg of you, more than two squat racks...
We got plenty of those but just one leg extension machine
For the average person of any age, size / strength, all you need to do is put in a serious bit of effort on a Concept 2 rower regularly. I switched to that a few years ago and I'm still scared of it - other things in the gym, and I've tried them, seem easy after that.
But its so boring!
Surely there’s a pill for that?
Maybe just police the 20 year olds who hang around on the equipment for 10 minutes on their phone between sets.
Ooops, sorry!
(Not quite 20 though, admittedly)
Ive seen a few people at my work place on this stuff. They all look ill, some look really ill - yet this never seems to be mentioned in the UK press
As opposed to being obese?
I guess there are different degrees of overweight, but these people, to my eyes, looked healthier before yes
Big Pharma to the rescue😢
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GLP-1 suppresses appetite,, leading to decreases in body fat and muscle. Strength training burns calories and increases the body’s demand for food, particularly protein. Injecting artificial chemicals into one’s body to reduce weight while body-sculpting in the gym does not sound like “health and wellness”.
Thank you Dr Saltpetre. It’s all witchcraft isn’t.
I agree but be mild:
People with real overweight are in a state in which diet and exercise no longer works.

Some of my friends really tried.
I once looked up the statistics and only 1 in something like 200 succeeds losing structural weight. It shocked me.
Diet and exercise do work - those people need to put the effort in and not be weak about it, rather than whinge and come up with excuses

“Fat shaming” has a purpose and is a net good
If you explain to somebody that when the pay cash, they will on average consume 10% less calories ... and they even do not do that

Than, I completely agree with you
Society should not pay these medicines for them because they are simply too lazy.
You may fat shame to the ATM, please ;-)

But many do not fall into that category
It's been proven time and time again not to work at getting people to lose weight, and as the poster above said the stats on losing weight naturally are shockingly bad. At some point you're just saying you'd like to berate fat people, cos you're not achieving anything else.
Sure - but aren't a lot of people subscribing to the gym to lose weight?

Isn't that what most of the USP is?
To lose weight, you need a calorie deficit. That can be achieved through cardio or strength training. Someone who is looking to lose weight through exercising can balance their exercise and calorie intake so that there is a small but consistent deficit, leading to sustainable healthy weight loss.

Ozempic creates a calorie deficit of its own, but also causes people to need to strength train in order to replace lost muscle mass. That training creates a further calorie deficit. Training while in an excessive calorie deficit is very bad for you and increases risk of muscular or skeletal injury.

Therefore, Ozempic and strength training have to go together unless you wish to have muscle wastage, but they are also working in conflict as the Ozempic undermines the criteria needed for healthy strength training. Which is why it is so dangerous for people to be self-medicating with this stuff.
This is the right comment and points to a failing of modern healthcare which is it is not capable of prescribing anything except medicine. Make a personal trainer or gym attendance a requirement of getting that hit of ozempic. Hell, only let personal trainers have access and pay them to administer after a gym session of weight lifting. Otherwise you are just shredding someone’s mass which still has benefits, but ultimately leads to other issues long term and teaches the individual nothing about the lifestyle needed once those injections stop.
If you actually took the drug you would understand. It decreases appetite but you still want to eat. You eat better because you don’t crave sugar. I eat protein rich foods with some carbs, I don’t require low calorie alternatives which taste bad and now I don’t calorie count. You have energy, going to the gym or a run is fine. Some symptoms when starting, like nausea and some discomfort, you start on a low doses and build up to the full dose. I’m down 4kg in two months. I can see this being apart of peoples lives taking a low dose to maintain your weight. You’re not on a hunger strike, you can pick up a piece of chocolate and eat it and you wont waste away into skin and bone. If I was shareholder in Mars, Nestle and Fast Food etc, I’d be lobbying to make this drug cause cancer.
Humans have self-destruction built in their DNA. Amen.
Very insightful article